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Serbia and Azerbaijan eye future flights

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Belgrade - Baku service imminent according to Serbian government

The Serbian government has announced that flights to Azerbaijan are likely to be launched soon as the two countries have already prepared the legal framework for future services. During the fourth meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation held in Baku on Monday, Serbia and Azerbaijan drafted an Air Service Agreement, which the two sides say will be signed and ratified shortly. “We think that this area [aviation] is a priority for the development of relations between our countries and we will strive to get it [Air Service Agreement] signed quickly. The legal framework established between Azerbaijan and Serbia allows for our relations to continue developing without any limitations or problems", the Azeri Economy and Industry Minister, Shahin Mustafayev, said.

The Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Rasim Ljajić, said there is strong interest for flights between Belgrade and Baku to be launched and that the two sides are now studying ways in which airlines from both countries can cooperate on this route. "A direct air service, which will be introduced, will help expand and improve both travel, as well as our economic relations. This is the first step in boosting our ties", the Minister said. Mr Ljajić added that travel between the two countries will be fuelled by Serbia's plan to abolish visa requirements for Azeri citizens. "We are offering a full liberalisation of the visa regime, where citizens of both Azerbaijan and Serbia can travel to each others' countries without visas". Currently, Azeri citizens require visas for almost all countries in Europe with exception to several former Soviet states, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia.

Azerbaijan's national carrier, AZAL, considered flying to Belgrade on several occasions. The carrier at one point was interested in acquiring a stake in Serbia's former national airline Jat Airways and contemplated operating some of its US-bound flights via the Serbian capital. In 2011, it was also discussed for its flights to Zurich to operate via Belgrade in order to make the service more viable. The Serbian government offered to issue the carrier fifth freedom rights at the time, allowing AZAL to sell tickets on the Belgrade - Zurich sector as well. AZAL maintains flights to a number of European cities. It operates a fleet of 32 aircraft including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

A3 has its main hub in ATH and JU in BEG.In addition to that it flies yourists during summer to the islands.Last year it was the modt profitable full service airline in Europe. BUT it doesn't try to fly to America. Despite having a much biger hub than JU and very large diaspora and local tourists in the Us and Canada.

A good friend of mine who is quite high in the Azeri ministry of economy told me that the last time the Serbian government was in Baku, they were not informed about it and only found out once they returned to Belgrade.As far as AZAL goes, they themselves have no interest in flying to Belgrade (at least not now) as they have other priorities.

If AZAL was to fly to Belgrade then this deal has to be pushed through political channels. Then again, with AZAL's growing network, I really wonder what JU can offer them.

Yes but how big is the Baku-Balkans market? Furthermore, one of the biggest markets over here is Budapest which is going seasonal (if it returns). In addition to all that, JU would be competing with TK which has an extensive Balkan network and serves Baku five times per day, where two of those flights are operated by A332.Also, AZAL had an interline/codeshare with Pegasus so they can kind of already have a partner.

Cool! Besides the gulf carriers, BEG has been lacking these more "exotic" airlines on its tarmac. Good decision - makes both economic and tourism sense. Both countries are in extremely good relations with one another, and Azeris are building a large chunk of Corridor 11 highway in Serbia, while Serbian building companies are active in Azerbaijan.

ASL with its great new service, it's luxurious lounge and its rapid expansion is quickly gaining a reputation as the future Singapore Airlines of South Eastern Europe!Just a few more connections are needed and it's transatlantic network will be very successful and expand to many cities of USA and Canada.

In addition, if you wanted to ask a question about when some politicians will stop talking about politics on this blog one of my answers can be that I see no politicians participating in the discussions here at all.

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